There is a great difficulty in today's world to gather parents for school events. At the school I frequented, the classroom attempted to host its own special afternoon for parents. The children worked for at least a week, constructing stories, re-tellings of events, to read their family (and the other children) at a "Publishing Party." The children were excited and overwhelmed, re-writing and crafting the same story until it reached some level of "perfect." The turn-out of parents was larger than I expected, with mothers carrying cameras to photograph every moment, and fathers encouraging their sons to speak louder, so everyone could hear.

Unfortunately, it was almost inevitable that some parents could not make it that day. With a majority of families bearing two bread-winners, there simply isn't that one housewife or house-husband who can drop everything and appear. Nor is there always that parent who can afford to miss a day of work. Though a large group of parents did make it, that did nothing to console those who were left to read their work aloud to strangers. Some read very quietly, nervous to present to a group they did not know. Others were loud and made a racket until they were kicked out of the classroom, feeling no need to be there or participate any longer. Similarly, the children who had parents there demanded silence while they read, but made noise or left the publisher's table during the reading of student without parents in attendance. The idea was, "what does it matter?"

Such are the issues a school faces when trying to generate parental involvement. Though the adults may have had greater success if this party were hosted during the evening, the issue then becomes, how many students would be allowed up that late? How many parents would feel like making the return trip to the school? What would happen to children whose parents worked the night-shift, and thus could not read to anyone, let alone their family? What would happen to children whose parents did not own a car, and may not want to take a long walk through a darkened Providence?

The event went relatively well, but the classroom needed a way to make the event important to students even without a parent in attendance. There needed to be someone to tell each child that they wanted to hear what they had to say, and that their words were important. Instead, students created their own form of segregation: students with parents there were important, and special. Students whose parents did not come were insignificant, and their stories irrelevant. Though I and my fellow tutor tried to approach and reach out to each of these children, it wasn't always enough.